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Two decades ago, before Friedrich Merz came back from the private sector to win the German chancellorship, he accepted an invitation to a gathering of the French Foreign Legion in Corsica. At the last moment, the organizers asked him to arrive on the parade ground not by road or rail, but by parachute.<\/p>\n
Mr. Merz, then a corporate lawyer, had never jumped out of a plane. But a fellow attendee recalled recently that Mr. Merz did not hesitate. He made the jump \u2014 successfully, but with a bit of a rough landing.<\/p>\n
Now 69 and a politician, Mr. Merz is attempting a much more precarious leap with a similar risk of stumbling.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Mr. Merz, who has no executive experience in government, will become Germany\u2019s 10th chancellor. He will take office at the most challenging time for the nation since the reunification of East and West Germany 35 years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The new chancellor and his coalition government, led by his center-right Christian Democrats, will land in a series of national crises, including a stagnant economy<\/a> and a frayed relationship with the United States.<\/p>\n An ascendant nationalist party, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which German domestic intelligence just classified as extremist<\/a>, has surpassed Mr. Merz and his mainstream political counterparts in some polls.<\/p>\n In the months since his party won elections in February, Mr. Merz has been aggressive about addressing those challenges.<\/p>\n He has criticized President Trump and questioned the stability of American democracy, and he has huddled with foreign counterparts in an effort to lead a newly muscular Europe. He quickly broke a key campaign promise on fiscal restraint, cutting a deal with center-left rivals to relax Germany\u2019s hallowed limits on government borrowing in order to spend \u201cwhatever it takes\u201d on national defense.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And despite joining the AfD<\/a> in an effort to pass new immigration restrictions shortly before the election, he has vowed to shun them in Parliament once more. He has also reversed a pledge to turn away asylum seekers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Merz\u2019s supporters say the moves are the hallmark of an agile politician with the potential to deliver on the big issues worrying the German public: growth, defense, immigration.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s extremely well prepared and very deep and thoughtful,\u201d said John P. Schmitz, a deputy White House counsel under George H.W. Bush. Mr. Schmitz helped hire Mr. Merz to work in the German offices of the Chicago law firm Mayer Brown and jumped out of the plane in Corsica with Mr. Merz around 2005.<\/p>\n But others think that Mr. Merz struggles to plan more than one step ahead, leading him to break promises. That, they say, has cut into his popularity.<\/p>\n His about-faces on spending and migration have alienated many of his base conservative voters. Mr. Merz and his party have sagged in the polls since the election, and the AfD has drawn even with them in some surveys. He is starting with one of the lowest approval ratings of any German leader in the modern era.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this old saying: \u2018Whatever you do, act wisely and consider the end,\u2019\u201d said Ruprecht Polenz, a former secretary general of Mr. Merz\u2019s party. \u201cThis thinking,\u201d he added, \u201cI feel is not his main strength.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Schmitz dismisses such criticism, saying that Mr. Merz\u2019s ability to be flexible is a sign of his leadership.<\/p>\n In the capital, Mr. Merz is known for his charm and ability to warm to new ideas. Friends sometimes complain that he is too heavily influenced by the last person to speak with him before he makes a big decision \u2014 but that, once he makes that decision, he hates to be challenged on it. That has sometimes caused critics to accuse him of stubbornness.<\/p>\n